Cincinnati--NetWellness, a non-profit consumer health web site, has been awarded a four star (out of four possible) privacy rating by San Diego-based enonymous.com, a venture-funded company that reviews and rates the privacy policies of web sites for its customers. Only 3.5 percent of the 30,000 sites reviewed by enonymous.com received a four star rating. Many of the most popular sites on the web rated poorly in this area. Privacy is a first priority for NetWellness, one of the premier health information web sites in the country.

"NetWellness is committed to protecting the privacy of its users and does not collect or share personal information," said Stephen Marine, NetWellness program director. "We donšt use cookies or require registration the way many health web sites do." The federal government does not require web sites to post a privacy policy, and NetWellness voluntarily posts its privacy policy. However, many health information sites choose not to do so.

Netwellness provides high quality information created and evaluated by medical and health professional faculty at the University of Cincinnati, the Ohio State University and Case Western Reserve University. Health care faculty from the three institutions serve as experts in NetWellness' popular, interactive "Ask an Expert" service. Started in 1995, as one of the first health web sites, NetWellness can be accessed online at netwellness.org.